Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1887-02-20
of What Use is Fine Lingerie?

of What Use Is Fine Lingerie?
You have heard about the young ladies
| who club together TO hire one suit oil rooms
and take turns in keeping house, and VINO
have at least one best dress in common, Tor
what they call grand but | call maSculine)
occasions. Such lotteries are increasing IN
number continually. have read learned
accounts of them rs straws to show that
| the wind of the world of labor is setting
toward co operation. l do not pretend TO
have brains enough in my little head to
discuss that, but | begin TO thlnk the COM
mon ownership OF clothes enters rs much
into the formation of these clubs rs any
thing. First the best suit, which IL many
| times better than one miss can buy rs there
are girls in the club; after that the freedom
from boarding house rules and gossip II
mOnOtonOus food, and finally the cheap
aeSs of living-these are the Inducements
that develop these clubs. II you have
ever lived in q boarding house, with ham
and eggs five mornings IN the week, ana
all the household peeping oVerthe balusterS
whenever your hest company called to see
YOU, to say nothing of hearing next morn
inp that some sour old maid in the back
parlor thought il a shame that gentlemen
callers should stay rs late as ii O'Clock IN
Il respectable hOuSe-yOu would see winch
way the wind blew yourself.
WIS in one of these club flats the other
day, where five ladies live together IN q
suite of six rooms. We girls are all babes
ia the woods, waiting for some man to iiud
VA and bring us to matrimOny; but three
of the misses, poor dears, had strayed so
far among the trees that fear no husband
will ever hum them up. The new young
girls keep getting married and the old ones
keep getting new companions to make up
the live. But the three charter members
are still in the woods. Well, OF course, l
WAS shown the best dress first of all. 1t
hung in the parlOr closet, inside an IN
starched skirt, with the beaded basque In
4 box by itself. 1t certainly was q love oil
dress. lust between lilac and dark purple
color sna made of silk so heavy and stiff
eued so with ieweled trimming that 1t
could have stood up at Queens reception
without needing IL woman inside Of 1t. 1t
cost those i've girls SIS apiece.
What u history it could tell! How many
parts it plays. IL takes Alice very grayely
to church On.Sundays with her civil engi-
Inrrr. 1t becomes giddy and tlirtatiouS on
the pretty form of Gertie, rs it accompanies
her TO plays and afterwards to little sup
pers on Friday nights. 1t is fairly strained
with suppressed excitement when, on the
back of Mary, it is forever being squeezed
into cabs on Thursdays, with pinchlngs
aud covert preSSurcS thrown III. And then
it is rs prm as u Quaker's gown when
Viola takes it To the Water Color ENhibi-
ton and all the dreary lectures on art.
Last years dress was in the same closet
good enough for occasions when the gen
tlemen happened to insist OH two girls go
ing out at once.
But what let a new light on these clubs
for me was being shown n bureau drawer
full of the very daintiest Gnen-Skirts, yOu
know, and corset covers and-wcll, the
whole set cut: each garment, whether BIZ
furcated or in m piece, being formed OF a
wealth of insertion and plating and tucks
and trimming of lace or embroidery. That
drawer wa simply Il symphony in under
wear.
rIt gOes with the estdress," | was told.
| Sllu OF iOuTSe, lnNuSu 4 LIuu l SNCi
thought OF such u thing, and | suppose to
"A man il would seem perfect nonsense. Yet
the minute | saw the things | conceded
the logic and propriety of having them.
That, married women tell me, is what men
never can Enthusiastically a woman must
he rs perfect in regions invisible ~. IN
her outer ,garb. What if nobody but a
washwOman does see the exquisite laceand
embroidery in a maiden's pOsseSSian? She
knows she is wearing 1t. She knows she
is rs nearly perfect rs she can be. My
goodness, What a thought there is in that
sentence! Why, | never shall forget how
it is to feel the other way. l had such an
experience once. | was to speak n gradu-
ating piece at school. i wrote it out and
committed it to memory and spoke it to
nv churns and relatives and my teacher.
II was praised to the skies, o fcourse. When
the great day came l expected to walk on
the stage, smiling and bowling right and
left, for i knew that piece rs well as do
my prayers. But on the way | stopped to
pick up q glove. My knee strained a tight
and diaphanOus garmentand r-r-r-r-ip
went a tear "A foot long. On the stage
could think of nothing else. Every drop
| ofblood went to my face. Every liuetied my
memory. 1t was exactly the Samet to me
~ il my skirts were transparent and every
body could see my misery.
AMY /. WEAVER.